Health Info

Research

To give our patients hope in their struggles with serious illness

Medical City’s Department of Clinical Research Services strives toward advancing medical techniques and innovations. We provide complete research support services to all individuals interested in developing research projects that will lead to improvements in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Some of these support services include:

Our team works closely with the investigators and the IRB to ensure all clinical research performed at MCDH is conducted under the highest ethical and legal standards. In addition to the work being done at Medical City and Medical City Children’s Hospital, the research team also provides oversight and support for other HCA North Texas Division hospitals including Denton Regional Medical Center, Las Colinas Medical Center, Lewisville Medical Center, Medical Center of Arlington, Medical Center of McKinney, Medical City Dallas Ambulatory Surgery Center and Green Oaks Hospital.

Clinical Research Currently Underway

Many of the research studies at Medical City and Medical City Children’s Hospital are evaluating new experimental treatment regimens for several diseases. For a listing of the current research trials underway, please visit http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/search and enter Medical City Dallas Hospital or Medical City Children’s Hospital. If you are interested in any of these trials, please contact us at 972-566-6060.

Help with Research Projects

Medical City’s research team is staffed by veteran professionals with extensive backgrounds in clinical research. The expertise of the staff covers a wide range of disciplines including biostatistics, cardiopulmonary physiology, life sciences, medical biophysics, nursing and research administration. The department can also assist investigators in preparing scientific presentations summarizing their research study and findings. We work closely with the IRB to insure that all clinical research studies are conducted under the highest ethical and scientific standard. Also, we developed an Investigator's Guide to help with the preparation of the required documents for IRB approval of a research study.

In 2010, the IRB reviewed and approved 82 new human clinical research projects. At year end, there were 254 active research protocols at Medical City and the North Texas Division hospitals. Medical City has consistently represented between 85 and 93 percent of all open protocols. In addition to these numbers, the IRB reviewed 383 adverse event reports, 49 protocol deviations, 103 active protocol amendments, 41 informed consent revisions, approved 187 one-year continuations, and 97 study closures. Major specialties include:

Pediatric hematology/oncology and cardiovascular represent more than 60 percent of all open protocols. Pediatric hematology/oncology represented the greatest percentage of open protocols at 36.3 percent. Cardiovascular research, represented by cardiothoracic surgery and cardiovascular disease specialties, represented 24.5 percent of the open protocols.

Nursing and adult hematology/oncology were the next two major specialties with currently open protocols at 11.3 and 12.2 percent, respectively.

Nursing research protocols continued to represent a significant proportion of the open research trials. In 2010, 24 active nursing research protocols were open and active. Fifteen of these protocols were approved in 2010, one shy of the all-time record of 16 new nursing protocols in one year